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Hester reprimanded by Pac-12

UCLA junior cornerback Aaron Hester has been reprimanded for comments made after the Bruins’ 29-28 win over Arizona State on Saturday.

“Mr. Hester’s remarks were a clear violation of the Pac-12’s comprehensive restrictions on public comments on officiating and he is being appropriately reprimanded,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said.

So…what’s the reprimand? Someone should ask Scott if those referees are being reprimanded as well.

Anonymous

Yes the referees should be held accoutable!

BruinTran

I think that is it…you get a simply slap on the wrist.

Marc

Just like the NBA. Coaches and players are forbidden to comment on officials as the league doesn’t want to give any impression that there may be issues with their officials. Problem with their approach is they look like they are hiding something or trying to stifle free speech to protect their inept referees.

Not only were the PI calls iffy, there were many holds and a few poor tackling calls that could’ve went against ASU in the game. But there will be no public discussion as the league prohibits that. I remember the basketball game at uw when Aboya got the ball thrown right at his face. Nothing, nada, zip. Mr. Scott has got to realize that though you don’t want an atmosphere where coaches and players can run rroughshod over the refs, there needs to be accountability that is transparent and actionable.

I am not saying that the refs were against UCLA, though I will say that it is odd that the most penalized team in the PAC-12 basically got the benefit most of the night. The only reason this isn’t a bigger issue is that, ultimately, UCLA won.

Screw the corrupted PAC-12 officiating board. It’s clear they protect the teams on top…I hate USC, but replay showed clearly there was one second left on the clock, had USC had a chance to kicked a field goal their little princess Stanford would have been beat, and with that goes a potential..what, $20 million for the conference?

The officiating on Saturday was the worse I’ve ever seen that PI call on HEster was BULLS**T?? the ball was overthrown by 10 yars and 5 yards off target to the right. It’s damn conspiracy to keep certain teams from possibly spoiling the conference’s chances of a big pay day in the BCS title game. F**k the corrupt Pac-12 officials, and the monkeys with suits!!!

@Marc…what do you mean by “a win that was apparently ‘gifted’ to them”? UCLA had to over come two crucial fumbles in the fourth quarter, in a game that the officials were trying to “gift” to ASU not to UCLA…ultimately, justice was served and the team that deserved to win did…so I ask you again what do you mean by a “gifted” win?

bskb

I don’t care what pac 12 officials say. Those refs deserve to be fired for their incompetence. Sports that insist that the integrity of officials cannot be questioned by players must insist that their officials are good enough to deserve that protection. The Pac 12 will always be a also ran conference if people believe that the refs have less integrity than a mob run boxing ref.

Anon BN reader

@ BruinRob
I think Marc is (sarcastically) referring to an article on the bruinsnation site that claims the ASU victory was “gifted” to us.

BringbackDorrell

Oh…justice was served…. Wahh…. Why can’t we get a break….? Wahhhh… Pu**Y liberals. Oh…everyone’s against the powder blue teams… Wahhh…

Marc

@BruinRob

I was clowning the bruinsnation hacks. Their headline after the win stated that UCLA was gifted the win. I’m with you; two 2nd half fumbles, terrible officiating and a better than average opponent. I think UCLA fought tough for a hard earned win. The same UCLA team that was completely written off, by everyone, including me, after the Arizona game on ESPN.

PAC-12 refs are notoriously horrible. So, what does the commish do to subside public sentiment that the refs are up to no good or are just plain terrible. He hides everything behind a series of oak doors. Very few people know what is happening behind those doors, and the rest of us are left to speculate.

The T.V. announcers calling the game were talking about how 6 PAC-12 teams rank in the top ?20? teams in the country in penalty yards per game. They hypothetically asked if the teams were that bad or if it is a symptom of the officiating in the league. I, and the vast majority, will go with the latter. The officiating in the PAC-12 stinks.

And I will not stop clowning those fools on bruinsnation. They are bad for UCLA. Even if you are not behind Rick, and believe me, I’m not fully sold on him, their emotional tactics are nonproductive and immature. They believe that they will somehow bring change to UCLA athletics. They most certainly will not by acting the way they do.

BruinFaithful

Reprimand means, a warning, that he will probably be suspended next time it happens.

Some of the calls were BS, but Aaron should know better. I think there were 2 or 3 calls against him right? I remember the one at the end of the game was total BS, and one was debatable. He needs to learn not to hold. He does it a lot.

BruinRob:

Don’t go all Oliver Stone on me now. Yes, the play calling is horrible and inconsistent, but a C O N Spiracy? Come on. Woods knee was clearly down before he went out of bounds in the SUC game, which means the clock keeps running. You can’t call time out that quick man. Even if he did tell the Ref beforehand. I’ve NEVER seen it happen. You? It’s not like there were 30 seconds left on the clock and Kiff told the Zebra, “Ok when the clock gets to 1 second, I want a TO.” Kiff is hardly one in position to accuse ANYBODY of lying.

Even if time out had been called, it would have been a LONG Field Goal from the Left Hash mark. No guarantee he makes it. SUC’s kicker is not so good. I’m sure if you look at the 3 OT tape closely, you will also see the zebra punching the ball out of McNeal’s hands.

Bruin Gold

Clearly, PAC-12 Officials call fouls very very frequently compared to officials in every other conference. Whether or not this is just a tendency for these officials or whether or not this indicates incompetence is the subject of debate. Many people lean toward incompetence.

Be that as it may, there were a lot of official reviews of calls during the game that were not asked for by the coaches. This should – at least – negate some of the incompetence, particularly on crucial plays. Clearly there were calls that were complained about in real time which on review were correct for example.

In Basketball, if the referees for that game are foul-call-happy, then players automatically adjust their play to take this into account. The only question is if the referees are fair in their calls – which they often are. The same should be the case in the Pac-12. The referees are clearly foul-call-happy.

In UCLA’s case, all of these trial and tribulations indicate that UCLA was NOT gifted the game. They fought hard enough to win the game – period.

Our kicker missed an easy field goal. One of our touchdowns was called back due to penalty. Their kicker missed two long-field goals that can be easily missed. The penalties against UCLA were overcome.

In any close game, there will always be questions of “What if?” or “Gifted?”. But the point is: we won. Be Happy. I am.

Congratulations, Rick Neuheisel. You and the players keep up the great job and turn-around. Puke in your pants if you must, Nestor. But I’m going to yell: Go Bruins!

Marc

Well, I see the boys at bruinsnation woke up this morning to a fairly positive post on their website. Can’t have that, poor youngsters, you just don’t get it. They also took note of the growing anti-bruinsnation sentiment in the blogosphere. Of course nestor and tydides, the two most notorious haters claim we must all be either trogans (sic) or naive “neubs” as Nestor has come to call people not on board with his agenda.

Hey turd-buckets. 37 year old Bruin right here. Bleed blue and gold. Sit in section 22 at the Rosebowl every UCLA home game. The best section in the Rosebowl. No offense every one else who sits in another section. If you don’t feel your section is the best, then you should consider moving. That’s the way I feel about that. I would love to see you bruinsnation hacks come to the Rosebowl waving your flag of discontent. You will get the idea quickly that you are an extremist. As with all extremist groups, you will wither into obscurity at some point. Until that point, I will point out your idiocy as often as I can.

People may question why I wield this ax against these people. During Dorrel’s final year and a half, I was discontent and looking for people of common ilk. In those days I used to frequent Bruingold and found that they were myopic group and when I or others brought up the need to cut loose of Dorrel, it was met with anger. I seeked people feeling the same discontent and found bruinsnation. A little over the top were some, but I felt they wanted what I wanted, UCLA football brought back to a place of relevance.

I joined and started commenting occasionally, noting early on that if you were not with them you were against them. This was all against the backdrop of the political atmosphere in America that was very similar. I started to draw comparisons and attempted to inject some moderate viewpoints to the fray. I came head on with the “must be a trogan” comments and fell out of favor with the mods. Of course, back then they had slightly different handles, but they are the same. There is a political/social theory that deals with extremism and how groups go further off the edge together without realizing it. Hence what we currently have over there.

I love UCLA, the educational function as much, if not more, then the sports function. I want the best on both sides. I just don’t want it with the same extremist view as those tools. I call them tools not because if their views, but because of their tendency to turn on fellow Bruins with insane animosity. It is truly extreme and not based in reality as they like to claim. It is very emotional, the claim they hurl at the rest of us, and it needs to be called out so that we may save a younger generation of Bruins from extreme hate.

@BruinFaithful, good points. But I firmly believe the conspiracy therory. Remember 2004? Reggie Bush clearly fumbled the ball at the UCLA 35 yard line, Spence Havener picked it up and was on his way to the winning TD and the late whistles began, they ruled it incomplete, the Bruins, go on to lose 29-24 and USC advances to the NC game. In 2006 UCLA UCLA had to overcome many bad calls as well, in order to beat USC 13-9 which made the win that much sweeter, and UCLA kept USC from playing for the national title. It just seems the teams on what would appear on the road to a potential big pay day are protected by the officials, and that’s horrible for the rest of the programs that are trying to improve their statusses on a conference and national level.

Anonymous

Unlike the trolls across town, I don’t think the Pac-12 officials have it out for UCLA, or any conference team in particular. I just think it’s readily obvious that they are the absolute worst collection of refs throughout college football. We keep hearing verification from bowl teams each year that have Pac-12 refs officiating the game. Being a ref is an incredibly tough job. Pac-12 officials just happen to be worse than the rest.

Amillennialist

Marc, I agree with your general characterization of Bruinsnation and your desire for a fair, free, and honest climate for discussion.

I’d like to offer an observation on semantics:

When a word like “extreme” is used to describe groups as disparate as genocidal, totalitarian zealots (whose god promises them paradise filled with perpetual virgins and boys “like pearls” for slaying and being slain fighting in Allah’s cause) and mere bloggers (as distasteful as they might be), then the word becomes essentially meaningless and useful only for obfuscation or demonizing political opponents.

Certainly, Nestor and his sycophants have worked hard to build their echo chamber, and their poison is destructive; exposing and condemning it benefits all.

UCLABZ

What exactly did Hestor say?

Fans on both teams in a match always seem to agree that the ref favored the other team. I don’t care if a call stinks or not. Airing grievances in public about ref calls is not good for the game. Lots of people get really emotional about calls and it only inflames them. Their are numerous cases of sports officials being assaulted. California has a specific section of penal code dealing with it. We should all work to improve sportsmanship. Do you really think the PAC-12 goes out of its way to select incompetent referees? Do you really think their is a conspiracy to screw your team?

MichaelRyerson

Let’s not get caught up in the shitty calls. We won the game, maybe in spite of them, but we won it. We’re coming back, we’re building something here. Let’s not be distracted by these things. We can’t control them, we can’t even influence them. If we start worrying what’s hiding in the dark under our beds we become ‘SC.

Great job Aaron Hestor, you guy’s are making a big turn around.since AZ,three in a row is the new test.
hold that line defense,Utah cant’t be taken lightly.I thought at the begining of the season that we could win 7 and a possible 8, it’s all still do able.
every fan that’s still a BRUIN from 9to99 have the confidence that this is the team headed for glory.
fight on BRUINS, take no prisoner’s,and BTB’s
GO BRUIN”S.

Commentator

Mr. Gold,

Can you please explain what this means, will he miss any game time, will the program be fined?

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